Random musings on life, death and technology

Menu

More messing about in a boat

Today I managed to sand down all the woodwork on the main boat, and get the first coat of marine varnish applied. It’s slightly strange stuff; it has a slightly pink tinge to it, but goes on completely clear, as you’d expect. It seems to be a very high VOC – the vapours that it gives off make my head spin! Still, it covers beautifully, and the little 750ml tin I have is apparently good for about 17 square meters – which is probably enough for 3 or 4 coats.

I’m currently planning on 3 coats on the main boat, which should leave me enough spare varnish to do the rudder, centerboard and a little patching on the mast & boom. At 15c I need about 12 hours between coats, and must recoat in less than 48 hours. I’m planning to put the next coat on first thing tomorrow morning, and the top coat last thing tomorrow evening.

Then I just need to repaint the non-slip coating onto the bottom of the cockpit – I’m hoping that a single coat of deck paint, combined with some non-slip pearls should do it, but I won’t really know until I try it. Hopefully I’ll get that done on Tuesday.

Which means that if everything goes to plan, I ought to be in a position to get the Mirror back down to the pound later in the week – perhaps Wednesday evening, but more likely Friday morning.